28 May 2008

A pressure cooker makes cooking dried beans much faster. But... Don't be fooled into using one to pressure-soak soybeans for the purpose of making tofu. Something bad happens to the beans, and though the soymilk is tasty (and arrives quickly), it doesn't curdle! It is claimed that pressure cookers can help make tofu from soy flour, but I haven't tried that...

and put into blender. Blend for 15 seconds on high. Add remainder of tofu and all the melted chocolate to blender. Blend at least 2 minutes (longer the better, surely longer than you think, and add liquid as needed to make the blender happy) on the highest setting.

Pour mixture into pie crust, smooth with a spatula, and chill until firm.

Top with raspberries and whipped cream.

Donna notes that this recipe is quite flexible in terms of sizes and amounts of ingredients, and encourages trying other sweeteners, flavorings, etc. Brands have been noted, because this results in a vegan pie.

It's three radishes and 4 oz of spinach! (Truthfully, I had eaten 2 radishes prior to this...) This photo was taken a few days ago, and since then we've had lettuce and more spinach. The garden is indeed growing! Soon the broccoli raab, fennel, and green onions will be ready, and possibly some carrots, too!

This recipe is loosely based on what a number of internet sites claim has its roots in the Inca empire. Who knows if that's true, but this is a tasty way to get your quinoa... (And it's not terribly spicy.) Realize that corn, potatoes, and quinoa formed the basis of the traditional South American diet.

Fry

1 finely diced onion3-4 cloves minced garlic1 teaspoon salt

in some olive oil. (Of course, right there is Mediterranean influence, in the olive part, but I digress.) To this, add

and started leafing through it. I was being rather noncommittal, but Beth asked if I wanted to borrow it. I said "no", but kept leafing for a while, and eventually changed my mind. Anyhow, it explains in great detail how to make tofu, and many things soybean-related...

To make an admittedly not very long story shorter (it is way past my bedtime), we ended up getting a few pounds of dried soybeans from the grocer. After soaking them while I was off at work (and a bit longer yet -- about 14 hours), I made my first batch of tofu!

In all, I blended

1-1/2 cup dried yellow soybeans (organic, locally produced)

which were soaked in 6 cups of water for 14 hours. These were drained, and then pureed in the blender with

2 cups cold water2 cups boiling water

in two batches. The puree was added to

7-1/2 cups boiling water.

This was taken off the heat immediately after the puree was added. The mixture was passed through a colander lined with cheesecloth, and the solids reserved (for later, I guess. There are recipes for them...). The liquid raw soymilk was then put back on the stove, and brought to a boil. Once boiling, it was simmered for 7 minutes. At this point, it's drinkable soymilk! (Before this point, the raw soymilk/soybeans aren't suitable for human consumption due to the presence of an enzyme that inhibits protein uptake. Cooking destroys this enzyme.) And indeed, it was tasty soymilk!

At this point, I tried something from the book which didn't work. I added

about 2-3 tablespoons of drippings from damp sea salt

to enough water to make 1 cup. This was supposed to coagulate the soymilk. But it didn't work. So I tried a second mixture

1/4 cup lemon juice mixed with 3/4 cup water

and this worked! (Yes, I just added it to the rest...) There is a fairly delicate procedure where one adds the diluted juice slowly from the bottom up in the soymilk to avoid damaging the curds... I'll leave that part to the book. Anyhow, about 6 minutes later, there were copious curds floating about, and indeed the entire pan was probably a big huge chunk! I carefully transfered the contents to a cheesecloth-lined colander, wrapped them up, and placed them under weights (a large pile of canned beans and tomatoes). The pressing lasted about 15 minutes, while I cleaned up the kitchen. I cleaned one of the sink basins, and filled it with cold water. Carefully removing the weights, and sliding the works into the cold water, I was able to unwrap the now solidified block of tofu under water. I cut it into four smaller pieces, and the result is what you see! Freshness (and lateness of the hour) being what it is, this was possibly the best tofu I've tasted!